Video Gamers Podcast - One Hit Wonders (Great Games with No Sequels) - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

Gaming hosts Michael, Josh and Paul are back with another magnificent Bonus Round. This week we return to our gaming tournament as we draft the Best One Hit Wonders in gaming. Successful games usually mean sequels, but occasionally, a video game gem happens, but then… nothing. We pick some of the best, then pit them head to head to see which game reigns supreme in this awesome episode! Thanks to our LEGENDARY supporters: Michele B, Redletter, Nevo, Waynerman, TFolls, AceofShame, Jake, RangerMiller, and Ad Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/multiplayerpodcast Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/multiplayerpod/ Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/MultiplayerPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q Visit us on the web: multiplayerpodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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and you get access to all of our pods a day early. This is a bonus round episode where we are going to be talking about one-hit wonder games. These are games that are not part of a series. There are no sequels. They graced us with their presence for just a single game only. I am your host, Paul. And with me, you can call him Right Said Fred, because he's too sexy for this podcast. It's Michael. That is, you threw me off. I didn't know.

I've never been introduced first. Dear, dear, dear, dear in the headlights. I am number two, and I am too sexy for this podcast. I was so ready to sing. I was about to just break out in the song. You can still do it. Go for it. Go now.

No, it's ruined. It's ruined now. Too sexy for this podcast. Josh, you got your own one-hit wonder coming, buddy. Then joining us, you can call him Sir Mix-a-Lot because he got back. It's Josh. All right. It's Josh. All right.

Okay, fair enough. And I do got back. If that was Sir Mix-a-Lot, then Mix-a-Lot is in trouble. Yes, that's true. Josh is breathing on his neck. He's taking his corner. Oh, man. All right.

What a funny topic. Josh, I think you were the first one to kick this around as an idea i thought it was very funny because i suggested maybe covering best sequel and you immediately hit back with game that's never had a sequel you took you took my idea went with the complete opposite and i was like that's actually a better idea let's go with that one i i i love that we can be so contrary with each other we We do this in our Discord server all the time. We get into these amazing arguments for no reason whatsoever. And then people just absolutely love to either watch it happen or to jump in and start taking sides. Let's be honest, this is how this whole stupid waffle versus pancakes debate came about.

Because you and I were chatting one day, and then I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay now, buddy. And then this whole thing just started. But yeah, I love that we can be contrarian to each other in such a good, friendly manner. It is funny because there's so many times when we've discussed things in our private Discord, and we're like, let's just ask the listeners. Let's ask the listeners, see what they have to say about it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But what a cool idea. I really thought this would be a fun one to kick around. And I think that this one is going to be a little bit difficult to determine what games are going to be eligible because there are games that might have like spiritual sequels or you know maybe they're part of a bigger ip and maybe there are like tv shows

or movies related but not exactly any games related to it i think this is going to be a really fun one to cover now if there's anyone out there that has never heard one of our tournaments which is possible because we've not done one since January. Michael, do you want to give the people a little bit of a rundown of the format of this type of episode? Yeah, so basically the way it works is it's kind of like your standard any pro sports team or college sports team draft. Essentially, the way it works is there's an order. Somebody goes first. They pick what they think is going to win this contest, as it were.

And essentially, we go through four rounds. It's a snake draft, which means if you pick first, you also don't pick again for a very long time. And then I have the advantage because I pick third, which means I pick back to back in this current draft. And then at the end, after the draft, after we selected our four games each, then we go head to head, baby, and we go fight each other and the teeth and the nails come out and we claw and we basically just argue a whole bunch until one of us laments and says, okay, your game is better. I do have a question though. Paul, you might be able to answer this. Has Michael ever won one of these? I don't want to talk about it. Michael has had the number one pick, but he has not yet won a draft.

Now, I believe Michael has only done three. So to be fair, he's not done very many, but he is currently 0-3. 0-3? Okay. I just wanted to make sure before we went into this that that was the case. I cannot forget how bad I tilted in that best character to have a beer with because i had the second pick and i'm like i'm going with i forget what it was but i tilted so hard and i was mad the whole rest of the draft and then i did it again in the space draft because

i was like do i pick mass effect 2 because i haven't played it yet and i'm like no i'm picking elite dangerous and then i learned that you guys hadn't played it and i learned that draft was also out the window so this time around maybe i'll pick some games that i haven't played and you guys can argue about them and then i'll just i'll just go ahead and walk away with the w anyways to continue though you gotta oh go ahead sorry oh i was gonna say i've respected though michael because for the space draft, you drafted purely from your heart, right? You went with your favorite space game, Elite Dangerous. You just had the bad luck that Josh and I hadn't played it. So it did not carry you to a win, but that's okay. I feel like this type of draft for a standalone game or a sequel-less game, however you want to word it,

this one's kind of wide open. There is no clear-cut winner. I don't think there's any heavy hitters that are favored to win. I feel like any one of us could win regardless of draft position. Yeah, that's what Josh said last time, and I didn't pick Mass Effect 2. I mean, that was your fault. I will say this. I don't think I've ever had a more diverse list that I've come into a draft with. Like, you know, we did best RPG of all time. Like, that was an easy one.

It's like, oh, I really want one of these first two picks or something like that. Dude, this list is a crazy list. Because finding games that were good games that never had a sequel. Because historically, let's be honest, if a game does really well, what do they do? They make another one. So it's kind of hard to find games that were enjoyable that just for whatever reason died out and did not have a sequel. And so I'm excited for this one because I think it's going to be a little bit of chaos, which you guys know I love and thrive in because there's not any clear cut answers on this. So the actual tournament part, I think is going to get crazy where we try to argue our picks on a game that may not necessarily be super popular.

Right. Yeah. And we also tried to talk a little bit about games that are brand new that are likely to have sequels. So for something like Outriders, which Josh and I absolutely loved, we know there's going to be more content. It did not seem right to make a game like that eligible. So just sort of on a whim, we said, well, let's just call off any games from the last five years. So any game that is made in 2017 on has been made ineligible. I believe Michael was not crazy about that news because I think he said multiple games on his list were 2017 games. So for this draft, only games made in 2016 and earlier will be eligible.

That's so dumb michael really wanted it to be 2017 eligible right yeah i actually had one really good game from february of 2018 and i was like well go ahead and burn it since it's not eligible what would you have taken detroit become human oh yeah it was it was interesting but it is really it is really new it's still you're right though it's too new. You're right, though. It's too new. They wouldn't have had time to develop a sequel to it. But it was really, really one of a kind, definitely.

But it might not be a one-hit wonder because it is a AAA title. They'll probably make a second one. That's really the reason that we made this rule. God of War, right? Yes, that's part of a series. But then there is a sequel that's coming out that has been announced, but you could make the argument that technically the rebrand of God of War is a one-hit wonder. It's a slippery slope where it's like, is it a one-hit wonder just

because they haven't had time to make a sequel and it's a new IP? Or is this generally a game that should have at this point had a sequel made if they were going to make one and did not. And we want to go that route. And then you've got a war also has like 12 games in the series. It would be disqualified. Maybe that was a poor example, but very poor example.

Well, and this is another, another example that kind of hits both of those on how do we define the rules here? Because, well, this game is too new. I think it makes them up, right? We just say, this is, no, that's not because well this game is as we make them up

right we just say this is no that's not allowed because that game is probably going to win um so we're going to find a way to make it not allowed but like for instance jedi fallen order it's not a sequel or a prequel it stands alone now granted it's also too new it's 2020 i believe um yeah but at the same point completely qualify other than that it was made after 2017. That's what I'm... Okay, perfect. So that would qualify because it's not part of the other Star Wars games. And while they have announced a sequel for it, we really don't have any information on that yet. So even though there is a sequel announced for it, I think it would qualify that it's like, hey, we just don't have any information on that. So as of now, it's still technically a one-hit wonder. Yeah, totally agree. If there were rumors of a sequel, but it was never confirmed, and it's a really old game, I think those things are generally going to be allowable.

But we'll just have to take everything case by case and talk our way through it. I've got a couple of games on my list that may or may not be cheating so i know we'll have some debate over those uh as far as draft order goes this one is going to go me josh michael and then since it's snake round two will be michael josh paul and then we're just going to go back and forth and we are all going to draft four games each you guys ready to start this or do we need to hash out any other rules first i love these and i can't wait to number one try to argue that your games don't qualify and then slander them really really terribly oh i feel like we're gonna have a lot of google challenges too like where we're gonna be looking up release

dates and well technically that was in early access And we'll see how it all goes. All right, I get the first pick, which I would say kind of sucks, because I don't know that there's any games here that I could draft that I know for sure are going to be gone before I draft again. And you guys are going to pick four games after this. So I feel like I really have to make it count. So I i'm just gonna go for what i think is the best pick here i'm gonna say rust oh rust is a standalone game it is it was on my list i didn't think you either of you guys would think about rust though i didn't of course i thought about rust good pick so all right does any nobody questions whether or not that qualifies

yeah absolutely and it's a phenomenal game here's here's where this gets a little dicey because there's a lot of games that are still in development that are actively being developed still and have content made for them yeah but that doesn't disqualify it from this category correct you know rust is constantly having updates made to it but it is still a one-hit wonder standalone game there is no sequel to rust there's not been any offshoots or anything like that so great pick paul and there have been copycats but nothing directly made by respawn and or is that their name no it's a face punch sorry face punch much now i know i'm i know i'm kind of standing halfway in the grave because i know michael hasn't played it and we have kicked around the idea of doing another deep dive on rust

because we gotta baptize michael by fire yes in that game at some point uh so i know that this may not win but I feel like out of everything on my list, I know there's a chance Josh might take it with one of his first two. So I'm going to go ahead and lock in Rust with the first pick in the first round. I'm still wondering right now, just because the way Paul asked, do we agree that qualifies? I'm like trying to Google how that doesn't qualify because he sounded very, very suspicious on that. So if you Google search Rust release date, it's like 2013. The official release was just like, I don't know, two years ago or something.

But nobody considers that the release date. Rust has been around forever. Yeah, Rust has been around literally a decade. So that's one of those ones where if it's in early access for 10 years, but it's open and everybody bought it, I think that's the date you go off. So that was the only reason I asked. All right.

So we'll lock that in. And then Josh, you're coming in with the second overall pick. I have two that I absolutely want to land in this draft. There's two games that if I get both of them, I'm super happy about. The rest, I could really not care. I mean, I have others on my list. And I'm really worried that, Paul, you might take one of them.

Okay. But I also really like to win. And so I'm going to take the game that I think gives me the greatest chance of winning, and then just really hope that you don't take my number two. Okay. I don't think Michael would think about either one of these. That's not to say, you know what I mean? It's not to slander Michael's picks, but it's not his style. Exactly.

So my first pick, I'm going with Terraria, baby. It's on my list. Is it really? It is on my list, yeah. We did a deep dive on Terraria, baby. It's on my list. Is it really? It is on my list, yeah. We did a deep dive on Terraria. Paul and I were both very happy, like pleasantly caught by surprise about how good that game actually is.

Like I thought this was going to be a kid's game. I saw my daughter playing it all the time. I had zero interest in actually playing Terraria. And then I think it was Ace of Shame, longtime listener, legendary supporter that said, hey, if you guys deep dive Terraria, I will actually promise to pledge support to you guys. And that is not what caused us to deep dive it. But it's funny because we called Ace out and said, hey, we did it. Where are you at? And then to his credit, he joined and he's been a phenomenal supporter of this podcast ever since.

But Terraria, I mean, what a game. No sequel. And honestly, I don't think they're even developing content for Terraria at this point. Maybe there's a few mods or something, but I don't know if it's just that it's such a big sandbox that people can play it for a long time. But when I think of a game that had such an impact, it was an absolute amazing game, but just disappeared after that. I mean, people still play Terraria. I just mean the development. There was no sequel. There's no talk of any expansion to Terraria, anything like that. I mean, it's ranked right up at the top of my list. I'm going with it, man. It's a fantastic first round pick, in my opinion.

I could be wrong, but I believe it's also like maybe even in the top five highest rated games of all time on Steam. If it's not top five, I'm pretty sure it's top 10, where it's like 98% overall positive. Yeah, wildly, wildly high. Great pick. Ironically, your pick is like a very well polished tightly made game rust is an absolute train wreck of development and riddled with bugs and hackers and somehow that only adds to the experience so these are two games that like could

not be more different but they're both excellent in their own way so this kind of shows you you can have wildly different games on this list because it's not tied to like a specific topic right exactly yeah so michael you get back-to-back picks i'm so excited better not pick the game i want because it's coming back to me after that so you guys you guys ready to argue about whether this qualifies or not? Oh, absolutely. Oh, I can't wait. Here it comes. You start out the game, and a narrator makes you pick a door on the left or the right. The Stanley Parable. There's no sequel to that.

That's 100%. That's a great pick. The only reason that I say is because technically it started out as a mod. It's a game unto itself, though. No, out as a mod. And so do you say... It's a game unto itself, though. No, it became a game. That would be like saying that Forgotten City is not a game because it was a mod for Skyrim,

but it became its own standalone game. Uh-oh. I think that's a great pick. And I didn't Google the date. I think it was before that, right? Yeah. It definitely qualifies. And it doesn't have a sequel.

No sequel. Definitely qualifies. And I also did have it in my list as well i think that's a really good pick yeah i figured if i'm gonna burn one early i'm gonna go ahead and get some arguing out but i'm happy we didn't argue about it because now i get it so that's good you know what's funny i played the demo for stanley parable and i know that that is an amazing game that people really really love it's It's one of those experiences where it's like, when you're done playing it, it really sticks with you. There's even an achievement where you

have to leave the game. It's called Go Outside or something. And it's like, you can't load the game for five years. But if you load it up five years later, you get an achievement for it. No. Yes, absolutely. The game's filled with stuff like that. That's incredible. I was going to say, it might even be more than five years, because I remember seeing people post that they were getting that achievement, and I feel like it really wasn't that long ago. But yeah, what clever use of narration. No game has used a narrator better than the Stanley Parable. Didn't I draft the narrator as a character to have a beer with?

You did. And he went pretty far, too. I think we argued about it far, too. He actually made it way further than he had any right to. Oh, what a good pick. Not to toot my own horn. That was a good pick. I'll have to pick that game up. They're about to release the Ultra Deluxe version or something. And I think at that point, I'm going to actually pick it up and play it. You know what the worst part about that game is? Is that... No, because I've never played it. I've barely played it.

Like, barely. And I thought it was brilliant. Loved the narrator. Loved the fact that the narrator is kind of an antagonist, and you've got these choices to make, and it's really a lot of that kind of stuff. But the game really can be completed in about two hours. And I didn't finish it.

That's ridiculous. If you go through it, it's a very like if you if you go through it it's a very short game like ridiculously short and i have heard that there's a ton of replayability though in the sense of what you do and don't do so even though the actual like from start to finish is very short like two three hours i feel like you can put a lot of time in there messing with the narrator and not doing what he says and doing different routes and branches and stuff like that remember the choose your own adventure books how like love those they were great and they were like 200 pages long but you'd get through it in like 15 minutes because you're flipping go to page 172 go back to page 28 and so yeah and then you'd

start cheating and then you'd flip to both pages and see which one sounded better. I know, I've been there. Cheater. Oh, number two is going to be hard. This is going to be hard, because I actually... Oh, this is going to be so hard. The three games that I have up next... Oh, man. It's so hard.

You guys are right. Which one do I pick next? The three games that I have up next, though, that I really want to pick, I haven't played. I just want to win. Fair enough. Yeah, just don I have up next, though, that I really want to pick, I haven't played. I just want to win. Fair enough. Just don't pick my game, Michael. Oh, man. And I'm going to waffle so hard if I don't

do this. Alright. I'm going to go with Grim Fandango. Never played it. I have never played it either. I want to go with my choice. No. So for my turn, I just picked a game that none of us have never played it either. I want to go with my choice. No, no,

no. So I just, so for my turn, I just picked a game that none of us have played. All right. Talk about your all time backfires. I say it's incredible. They say the music's amazing. Um,

it's got a great mix of so many different things in it that just makes it amazing. Um, and I can't really tell you why it's amazing firsthand. I actually, Michael, a Mulligan. No, you're locked in by the rules of the draft state. And I can't really tell you why it's amazing firsthand. I actually... Did we give Michael a mulligan? No, you're locked in by the rules of the draft.

Stay when you make your pick. It's funny because I am familiar with Grim Fandango. It makes a lot of lists for games that people loved. Or like, hey, if you could go back and play a game again, honestly, it's up there. I have a game that's on my list that I might pick later on, depending, that is kind of in that same vein where I don't think a lot of people are familiar with it, but it's a phenomenal game. And it's all I hear about Grim Fandango. Yeah, it's kind of like... Go ahead.

Oh, I was going to say, I know that it's made by tim schafer who's one of the lucas arts people and he was uh one of the monkey island developers and and things like that so i have no doubt it's a great game i don't even know how this one slipped by me was this on playstation like i don't even remember what it is an older game i know that game and it's funny because people people complain about the remaster because they're like the remaster isn't really a remaster you didn't really do anything to upgrade the pixel count like it's not a remaster so it's funny because they remastered as a cash grab yeah no people do that no no no whatever okay uh I looked it up. It came out for Windows in 1998, and then the remasters started coming out 2015 on.

So whatever I was doing in 98, it was not playing Grim Fandango. That's all I know. It looks amazing for 98, though. I do know that's a great pick, Michael. It's unfortunate that I've never played it. Paul's never played it. You've never played it. This is not an easy list that you can Google, by the way, to try to do research on. Best RPGs, that's an easy.

You just put it and there's 500 games that pop up. Best one-hit wonder games is not as easy of a Google search. But I did actually see that at the top of a lot of lists. So apparently, there's a lot of people that feel the same way. I found out that a gaming term standalone does not mean what it means for everything else in the world. Everything else in the world means it stands alone. It's not a sequel. It's not a prequel. In gaming, it means you can play it offline. I didn't know that. Oh, interesting. Because I looked up best standalone game. And it's like, these are the best offline games. And I'm like, no, I didn't ask for that. I asked for a standalone game. And's like these are the best offline games and i'm like no i didn't ask for that standalone game and then i looked for the next list and i'm like so finally i google

gaming what does standalone mean and i looked it up and sure enough the first thing that popped up was you can play it offline and i'm like okay well this is going to be a really hard thing to google all right michael's still googling watershed games trying to figure it out my mind exploded last week on that i'm not i'm not i blocked it out all right so it's back to me right oh oh this is great i'm getting the game i'm getting both games that i really wanted game number two this is an easy pick for me a little game made by a company called bioware okay i mean hey that's a that's a well respected company that makes amazing games. No missteps ever.

Right? Never. Every game is perfect. They made a game that was right along their same formula of these great RPGs that involve choice. They added a little bit of action to it. I believe this came out right around... I can't remember if it came out before or after KOTOR. I feel like it came out after KOTOR, but before KOTOR 2, because I think that's where they

actually moved the development resources to. It's a game called Jade Empire. It was an absolutely phenomenal game. I played it all the way through. It was the perfect Bioware formula, but with martial arts and kung fu and great characters, great choices. You could choose to kind of be evil or good. And were you going to use your martial arts for defense or were you going to go on the aggression and just kick butt. Um, there was a little bit of mysticism involved, so you could get these cool abilities and, and kind of that, that, you know, higher level Kung Fu stuff where you'd swirl a dragon around you or whatever. Um, or get the glow, you know, like Shona from the last dragon, three people out there went, I love that movie. Um, but yeah, Jade Empire was absolutely great. There was nothing wrong with it.

It was well received. And then all of a sudden, Bioware just went, man, that game was great, but you know, it's even better. Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect,

right? Yeah. Well, you know, Josh, I've heard a lot of really good things about Jade Empire. You never played it. I never played it. No, man, I've never, never played it good things about Jade Empire. You never played it? I never played it.

No. Man. I've never played it myself, but I'm sure it's a fantastic game. Take Mass Effect. You know how much you love Mass Effect, Paul, and add Kung Fu to it. It sounds great. It's great. Except that it's not in space, and it's also 15 years older than Mass Effect.

I saw some really nice gameplay footage of this game so i haven't played it either and the funniest thing is this is going to be the most ridiculous like here's what's going to happen at the end of this we're going to fly through our arguments and we're just going to head to head the three games that all three of us have played that might end up being what this comes i told you chaos is going to ensue boys it's such a niche it's such a niche topic, but it's a great topic. How many people need to look at these games

that are just alone? And most of these are indie, I've noticed. A lot of these games are indie games and not big developers that I found when I was looking this up. But a lot of these games need to be looked at. And Jade Empire, I've never really heard a lot of people say, you need to play that. Has it been remastered? Because now because now i want to play it now bioware just completely left it and

it was a great game this wasn't like like i said it was super fun man it was it was it was 100 bioware everything that bioware does great was jade empire they just moved away from it is it playable on pc and Steam? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's still out there. It's funny because it's 75% off on Steam right now. All right. Then I'd like to talk to you.

Yeah. I don't know how it will age, to be honest. You know, KOTOR doesn't age that well either. And KOTOR is a superior game by far. But yeah. All right. Then I'd like to speak directly to our audience real fast, if you don't mind. Dear audience, first of of all we love you second of all if you are a member of the modding community please look into remastering jade empire so michael butler will play it yes thank you

there might be like texture mods or something out there i have no idea i feel like jade empire is a 100% up me and Michael's alley, because I know it has a strong story. You make decisions. There's consequences of all that. That's catnip for me and Michael. So I'm sure it's a great pick. I'm sure we would love it. I just can't speak to it with any kind of expertise. That's okay, because it's an amazing pick. We'll take your word for it, Josh. All right. So now we are back to me. I get my back-to-back picks here for round two, It's an amazing pick. We'll take your word for it, Josh.

All right. So now we are back to me. I get my back-to-back picks here for round two and then starting round three. Guys, I don't know. Do I draft trying to win or do I draft from the heart? This is always the eternal struggle here. I know what you draft. You draft from the heart. One of the games I don't have left.

Yeah. One of the games I don't have left my list. Actually, no. Don't draft from the heart one of the games i don't have left yeah the one of the games i don't have left my list actually no don't draft from the heart there's another game i want i am gonna take oh man i feel like we've talked about this game a lot but i don't care i'm gonna take it anyway because i know there's a chance josh is gonna draft it i gotta go eternal darkness sanity is requiem it's paul it's the best game on GameCube. It's such a good game. Nintendo, please develop more mature rated games. There is a market for it. Games like Eternal Darkness are so good. That game would have been 100% my actual next pick, Paul. So you stole my pick. That honestly could be my number one overall, if I was just saying from the heart, what

game is the best with no sequel? Dude, that game, I know we've talked about it in the past, but that game did so many things so well, and it was so unique at the time. And there's not really that many games that do what it did. And I don't know why. There's like none. Because it took the best thing about a psychological horror game. You had multiple characters.

It had a great plot. But the best part about that game was that it would 100% mess with your head. It trolled you. It would make you think your TV was broken. It would make you think you saw something and you didn't. It would turn your volume up and down on you. And it did all of these things in the game and you weren't sure what was in the game and what wasn't at that point and it was just it was the

most creative cool thing to experience in a game and it didn't hurt that the gameplay was fun and that the horror elements were amazing it had great characters and stuff like that. So it was, yeah, I mean, great pick. I would have picked it for my next one. Yeah. I feel like all of these games were made during this period of time where I was probably out, I don't know, like being a college student and doing other things or something. Because we're falling into this period of time when I'm just like, yep, good. Guys, I got to level with you. I don't know why I work here anymore. I haven't played this game. I don't know why I work here. I don't know what I'm doing here. I don't even know who I am. And Watershed? I gotta go. I'm out, guys. See you later.

Oh, how funny. Well, you know, Michael, this is a game that was the first mature game developed for a Nintendo console. And it had some really clever things. It had where you could focus on an enemy, but then you could use the right thumbstick to move and aim at different limbs or to aim at the head. And that was very new at the time. But what really made it stand alone was the insanity meter, where the more your character went crazy, the more your game would troll you, and the more your character would hallucinate. That's what everybody remembers. And it was a really clever story told through generations. So it would go back to your ancestor back in Italy during the Roman Empire, and you played as a Roman centurion. And you would experience that part of the story, and then it would zip ahead,

and then you'd play in another time zone. And it had puzzles kind of like Resident Evil. I feel like it did a lot of things that Resident Evil did not do, and I feel like it did it better. If I could have had an eternal darkness series at the expense of resident evil i would take that gamble wow i think eternal darkness would have had better yeah i think they would have turned out better they did try to develop a sequel i don't remember all the details but the gaming development studio was bought out by someone or it got disbanded and it's one of those games where the rights aren't really available. And so it literally cannot have a sequel because no one can make it.

They got sued is what it was. They got into a huge fight with Epic Games, of all people. You guys might have heard of them. But over some rights or something like that, they tried to sue Epic Games. Epic Games countersued. Epic Games won. They declared bankruptcy. And that was the end of an absolutely incredible game. And nobody's run with that since. Honestly, it's baffling to me. What's the lesson we've learned here, guys? Don't sue anyone, because you could get sued and you could lose your great game. That's true. So that'll be my second pick. For my third pick, Michael, I think I'm speaking to you now, buddy. Oh, no. I'm taking Spore.

Is that on your short list, Michael? No, but I don't know how it wasn't on my list. I have no idea how Spore was not on my list. I love Spore. Guess who's never played Spore? Oh, Josh. You know what's funny? funny i know that game was it got the most hype it was so crazy when spore came out man isn't it the same guy that did fable peter molyneux molyneux molino something like that i'm pretty sure it is i'm gonna say yes just to be agreeable i'm i'm pretty sure it is i'm i'm late coming in because i accidentally muted my mic and couldn't find the button uh no it's made by the guy who did the sims what's his name will something i'll take back paul just strike that from the episode so i don't sound stupid let's just edit that out i could be wrong google

challenge let's take a look spore wikipedia throwing down it was made by will right from from Maxis. So yeah, this is his guy. So we're wrong if you're Josh. Yeah. Leave that for the record. So yeah, Spore was one of those games that I think tried to bite off more than it could chew, but it was such a clever idea. I don't know how we haven't come back to it. It was like Spore was divided into

three different sections where you would start off as like evolving a single cell organism and you would have to control it and go around and like eat other organisms. And the more you did, then you would develop its DNA and you would actually build this species from the ground up, which was, I think, really clever. And then you would go into the next phase. Which was almost like an RTS. Where you would control your camp. You would work on dominating.

The other species around you. And then eventually in the last third of the game. You would develop space travel. And you would literally fly. To other planets and carry out missions. And I think the issue is that. This game came out in 2008. And I know it doesn't sound that long ago, but honestly, the tech just wasn't there yet. This

is back in the day when we were all still buying DVD ROMs and games were a lot smaller in scope. I think somebody should tackle this kind of project today. I think it is a golden idea that is just low-hanging fruit. Somebody please try to make a Spore spiritual sequel because I think it would be fantastic. Yeah, that game, when I played it, literally, it blew my mind. I think that kind of got me back into gaming after a long time because I played it at my buddy Sasha's house. My wife and I were staying there for a little bit while we were having a house built or whatever. I can't remember the circumstances, but we were there. We were staying at his house, and I came in his office one time.

I'm like, what is that? You've got a bunch of amoebas and stuff on your screen. I'm like, I think I learned the word mitosis because of that game. Because your little spores become... You've got other spores, and then you're DNA. But it's insane how it's almost like three different games in one game. But you literally develop an entire species. Man, that blows my mind that I didn't think of this game.

And this one might get a pretty... I'm not going to spoil it, but that's a pretty solid vote for me because I loved that game. Yeah, I thought that was a really good pick. That was one of the ones when I was making my shortlist that I was like, Oh, that's a good one that. I was, that was one of the ones when I was making my short list that I was like, Oh, that's a good one that the other guys may have not thought of. And certainly Josh would have never thought of it since he, I'd never played it,

but it's more of like a sim type game, right? Only in the, not really. That's what's so weird. It's like the one max, this game. That's just like,

it's almost like a modern-day IO game, where you would go around eating other amoebas and getting bigger, but then it also went into the whole science behind it, almost. Kerbal Space Program, in a sense. It had some elements kind of like that, yeah. And it had a little bit of Age of Empires. It

was very ambitious. I remember the hype and the excitement around when Spore was announced and was coming out. It was really tout. I remember the hype and the excitement around when Spore was announced and was coming out. It was really touted as the next big thing. I don't know what I was playing at the time, but I just never... That's one of those games I never... I don't even think I've seen gameplay, to be honest. Oh, you should look it up.

Listen to this opening couple sentences on Wikipedia. Spore is a 2008 life simulation real-time strategy god game developed by Maxis, blah blah blah blah blah. It covers many genres, including action, real-time strategy, and role-playing games. So yeah, I mean, this was a game that really did try to cover everything, and it did not excel at any of those one things, which is why I think it was a little bit of a flop at the time. I don't know how it did financially, but I feel like creatively people felt

like it didn't quite get there, which is exactly why we need a sequel. Let's use this great idea, but get it right. Alright, Josh, we're back to you. Round three. What are you going to take with your third pick? Oh, it's me again? Well, Paul. Yes, sir. I hate to do this to you, because I thought for sure you were going to take this one.

Oh. But I hope it's not what I was going to take last. All I'm going to say is press X to Jason. No! Yeah. I almost took it. I almost took it. I really thought you were going to.

Josh, I thought there was no way Josh is taking Heavy Rain on me. No, I love that game paul like i might not love it as much as you do because you're the one that taught like told me about it and said come over and play this but that was such a great experience man that is a game called heavy rain long-time listeners of the show are gonna know that we've talked about this in the past. Heavy Rain is on paper not really my kind of game, to be honest with you. I like a lot more action. I like competition. I like lots of stuff going on. And Heavy Rain is the absolute antithesis of that. And then it's just this story-based walking simulator of a game where you're the world's worst dad. We've talked about

this on multiple episodes. He's a great dad. He rescued his son in my playthrough. He lost both of his kids. This is the best part. Okay, go ahead. Explain the game, and then I want to talk about how there's no way you could ever make a sequel to Heavy Rain. But go ahead, Josh. I mean, so it's just a story-based game. It's the story about a dad who loses one son in a car accident and then loses his other son to a kidnapper. And you spend the game playing this crazy game of cat and mouse with the kidnapper who's leaving you these challenges and these clues that you have to do to try to save your son. It's like a nightmare situation, to be honest. But the game does it so stinking well that you become completely enthralled in this game. It's one of those games that just sticks with you. How long ago was it that we played Heavy Rain? Seven years? It was a few years back.

It was a while back. And I've only played it that one playthrough, and this game still sticks with me. So it's one of those kinds of games. I get that story-wise, maybe you can't just continue that story in a sequel. But it was an amazing game when it released. It's very, very well-received for people that have played through it. There's lots of memes about it. Press X to Jason as you're calling out to your son. Isn't it your son, Jason? I think if I remember right.

Jason is the one that dies in the car crash. And then Sean is the one that gets kidnapped. Yeah. Because I've played Heavy Rain 100 times. And what's goofy is a lot of games we always say would not hold up to today's day and age whether it's graphically or gameplay i don't care heavy rains graphics are abysmal in today's day and age but that game doesn't matter still phenomenal it does not matter one bit you could play that game for the first time today and absolutely understand everything

that we're talking about but no sequels and. And what's funny, Michael, is Detroit Become Human is a kind of spiritual successor to Heavy Rain. Yes, where they tried to kind of recapture some of the ideas behind it. But I think... I've never played Detroit Become Human. But from what I've read, people were not necessarily enamored of it. People either kind of liked it or they thought it was really bad. I loved it.

Yeah. I enjoyed it. But I think Heavy Rain is the much better version. If you haven't played Heavy Rain, Michael, at some point we legitimately should get you, me, and Josh together and just watch you play. I would watch you play. Because it is so over the top. It's like playing the movie Seven in a video game where you're just constantly like, I did not know you could do that in a video game. Like when this game puts you in a room and says in front of this camera, you need to cut off one of your fingers or your son's dead.

And you just start like walking around and you're like preparing for this by getting a plank of wood to bite down and you stick a hot iron in a fire so you can cauterize the wound after terrifying it's like it's you're playing it with your hands on your head like i can't believe this is happening and also the one thing that josh did kind of leave out is that you might be the killer you don't really know because your character's been blacking out yeah oh wow cannot remember events so it's possible that your alter ego or your alter ego might have kidnapped your own son has him locked up somewhere and you have to kind of figure all of it out so funny enough when you first said heavy rain i was like you can't pick a movie in my mind i heard hard rain the 1998 movie starting

christian slater and mor Freeman. Good movie. Right. And then I remembered Heavy Rain, and I'm like, this might be a game that's actually already in my Steam library. I'm not even kidding. Because I'm like, wait a minute, is that my Steam library? It would not surprise me if Michael has this game just sitting

in his library. If it's not, it's probably the only game that we've ever talked about that's not in my Steam library that I haven't played it'll be the first one that's actually the next bonus round draft is all the games in michael's steam library that he hasn't played and we just go for it uh the only thing is that yes a sequel to heavy rain i don't think you could have ethan be the main character because the idea of him having a third son who then goes on to get kidnapped is very unbelievable. And I mean, I don't think so at all. I think it fits the story perfectly. Maybe Sean has grown up and now his son gets kidnapped. And now maybe that's the hook. I don't

know. But I'll take any game from from quantic dream they were actually just sold or bought out so i don't know what that means for the star wars game that they're developing but yeah what a fun studio i love all their stuff but heavy rain for me is is the top great pick josh i was definitely going to take it with my last pick but uh that that's a good one so michael we are back to you you get to draft your last two picks before i pick my last two picks i just wanted to say that i'm gonna set up a sequel for heavy rain you ready for it what's the guy's name again kyle ethan ethan whatever same name um just kidding uh ethan gets a letter in the mail says that he had a girlfriend back in college and she had a son

and they're both missing. Yeah. Or she's dead, and he's missing. There you go. Boom. We just take the Hollywood formula and just rinse and repeat. Done. We got it.

All right. You certainly could. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead, Michael. What are your last two picks? Here we go. Back-to-back rock star, baby. Oh!

I have played one of these. I have not played the other. And yes, I played L.A. Noire. Michael, that's such a good pick. I thought that was going to be my surprise ace in the hole in round four. Nope. I've never played this first. L.A. Noire rules.

I hear it's a great game, but I've never played it. So for Rockstar fans, it's not your normal Rockstar game. Every other Rockstar game is the same formula, right? It's the same rinse and repeat, blah, blah, blah. Now, L.A. Noire is old. It's dated. I'm not sure if you could play it now. But it really does more go into like you're asking a lot of questions to people and you're waiting for answers and you have to determine different directions to go. And it's a bunch of different little like basically missions but really detective um what's the word i'm looking for detective cases yeah yeah you work a bunch of

murders yeah you work a bunch of little murders and they're all kind of culminating into a big murder or a big you know kind of like how are they all fitting together and piecing together but it still feels like a rock star given a lot of ways except the action piece is definitely missing there's not a lot of action there's a little bit in there but not a whole lot and the action is very very red dead redemption one ish would you say paul kind of like it's it's very kind of similar to you know like even less than that yeah yeah it's it's honestly closer to uh heavy rain action wise like you're not aiming and shooting at people you might chase people but it's all for the intent of like handcuffing them so you can then interrogate them back at the police station so you do like drive around and pick people up but i think a lot of

that game honestly comes down to what questions do you ask in the interrogation room what evidences do you have and how can you prove someone's lying? And how are you going to solve these murders? Yeah. And oftentimes they don't give you like straight up hard clues. You've really got to figure some things out. And it's the only Rockstar game that's really set. It's set in 1947.

So it's, it's, I guess it's like almost exactly in between Grand Theft Auto, Vice City, and Red Dead Redemption 2, if you do the math. I'm not, I'm not doing the math right now, but it's probably right in between Grand Theft Auto, Vice City, and Red Dead Redemption 2, if you do the math. I'm not doing the math right now, but it's probably right in between, smack dab. But it's cool because it also has this bit of a browned out tone to it. So you almost feel like

you're in an older movie, at least to my memory, if memory serves right. It's not as bright and colorful as a lot of these games are. And so it kind of left that feeling with me that I just I loved it. I thought it was great. And Josh hasn't played it. So we're going to throw it out like most of these games. Great music to like it's got that old school film noir soundtrack. And if you want to just go on a laughing fit, pull up YouTube and just search for funniest moments from LA Noir noir where you pull someone into an interrogation room and like accuse him of uh things i probably shouldn't even say on the podcast and you just can like throw out random accusations against these people and just seeing their responses is so funny la noir is great i think it would be so easy to make a sequel just set it in

another time period chase another serial killer instead of being the black dahlia or because this takes place like around the black dahlia killings make it like i don't know like around like ted bundy or something it would be really easy to make this game in the 80s or in the 90s i feel like it's got to be like pre-dna modern forensic stuff I would pick the 70s. I think the 70s are perfect for this. Yeah. There you go.

It's interesting, too, because it's just one of those things where I think Rockstar has gone so far in the direction now of action, action, action, shooting. That's what our people want. That this kind of game just might not sell as well. And so Rockstar is like, we're not going to make that because it just won't sell as well as the action games will and they're a business and they have to make money and so that's all there is to it we'll never see a sequel fair enough and did you say you have another rockstar game because this is another one on my list baby here comes bully yeah i love bully but awesome and i haven't played it it's like the only rockstar game i haven't played that's but i've not played bully either so apparently i'm missing out on two of these Rockstar games.

And I hear amazing things about both of them. Like, honestly, Paul, you and I have chatted about Bully in the past, and I think you love it, right? Weren't you saying it's a very unique kind of fun game? I love Bully. It's honestly just a PG-13 GTA. You're running around the dormitories, you're shooting people with slingshots and stuff like that instead of guns. I remember it being so controversial because people just immediately heard Rockstar and thought, we've got to make sound clips about how this game's harming the youth. People

called it a Columbine simulator. Get out of here. The game is nothing of the sort. That's just people who never looked at the game. They just wanted to rail on something and gain political points. Yeah, I mean, you ran around as this misfit teenager and you took care of bullies and you ran various missions around the school. You could ditch class and get in trouble. It was a fun game. I kind of see why they never made a sequel. I'll definitely say Bully does not hold up nearly as well as L.A. Noire. You can absolutely play L.A. Noire today.

I have it in Steam, and I first played it on 3DS. But yeah, L.A. Noire is well worth picking up. Bully, I think, is too old at this point. But I think those are both great picks, Michael. I hear one of the best things about Bully. Thank you, Paul. Thank you. I appreciate that uh tip the cap from paul uh we can end the show now because paul just gave me the great compliment um he's actually never said that before um it's certainly better than your round two picks which you know what it's funny

because i roll oh i i can't can't pump you up too too high michael gotta keep you grounded well i'm still riding the high you gave me at the beginning because I believe the intro said, he's a man who blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I've been waiting 22 years for my father to call me a man. And Paul just called me a man. I'm so happy. Sorry, guys. I digress.

Anyways, I hear one of the best things about Bully also is how you navigate your social circles while you're at school. And you've got to kind of go through and do that kind of stuff. Cause I was reading a lot about it and I've heard a lot about it. And, um, it just seems really interesting, a little bit different from,

um, a lot of the other rockstar games. So I can see why they don't want to make sequels to either one of these, but I would love it. Well, I don't know about bully, but I would love to see a sequel to LA and law. And that actually should have been like my first pick overall.

Do you think that they just went the GTA route after Bully and said, hey, this formula kind of works, but we can just step it up and not worry about people being upset about violence? Yeah, absolutely. I think so. People want a lot more action sometimes, and I think action... Games that have...

So here's the thing. GTA and Red Dead Redemption kind of have some elements of L.A. Noire. There's some investigatives. You have to go ask some questions of people, but they also add the action piece in. And I think that's why they sell better, and that's probably why they just went that route. Yeah. L.A. Noire has a very specific niche audience, I think. It's not as universal. Honestly, you're looking for people who really love movies and people who love detective stories, but also like games, which is why

Michael and I love it so much. But I think for your common person, they want more action. So yeah, it makes sense why there's no more. And it's actually L.A. Noir. I was going to say, I like to pronounce the R, but you do you, Michael. All right, Josh, you get to take your last pick here in round four. How are you going to finish out your team? Oh, boy. Well, I was going to take Eternal Darkness, but you stole that from me.

Who picks last? You, right, Paul? So I can't spoil anything. I i was gonna talk about some options here i still have a lot listed yeah whatever you got i probably have on my list i i my heart says to pick this game because it's phenomenal and it is one of those games that never had a sequel there is a sequel that is rumored to be in development and has been rumored to be in development. And has been rumored to be in development. For a long time. For like 15 years time? Yeah actually.

I think so. I know where you're going. Maybe. It's been a while. That sequel is not coming. By the way. I don't know. I don't think I'm going to pick that game though.

Because I want to win. Beyond good and evil. It is beyond good and evil. Yep. Neither of you played that right? It's a phenomenal game dude. It is so good. I played it for 10 minutes.

Dude, I was the same way. I was like, I hear good things about this game. I'm going to pick it up. I'm going to play it. I got completely sucked into that game, realized why it is such a cult classic type game. A lot, a lot of fun, man. And yes, there is a sequel that's rumored to be in development, but has been rumored for a very long time. I'm going to try to pick a heavy hitter here, because this game has not had a sequel. It was one of the better old school Nintendo games. And that's a game called Star Fox. Star Fox 64. Yeah. was that a sequel yeah starfox 64 is wasn't it really a sequel or was it more of like a reimagining it's a sequel dang it it's in the it's in the same i don't yeah i would the same reason i didn't pick excite bike because excite

bike had an excite bike like 64 i look at excite bike the same way i look at is just the base game and that's it so okay all right well i tried darn it um we had to throw at least one game out we haven't thrown one out yet so unfortunately you're at the end all right i mean it's the last round what's it gonna matter okay right the latest release was starfox 2 which released in 2017. I believe when you call something 2, it actually implies. Anybody ever played Star Fox 2? I actually have, and I'll tell you why.

It is on the Super Nintendo Mini, which my family bought me for Christmas one year, and it has Star Fox 2, which was previously unreleased. So there is Star Fox 2, but there's also Star Fox 64. Also, Josh, this list is not called games that have sequels that nobody played. All right. All right. Fair enough. Fair enough.

Dang it. All right. I was thinking that there wasn't an actual legit sequel to that. Yes, there were some offshoots, and maybe they tried to capitalize on the name, but okay. I'm torn between two games then. I don't think Paul would pick either one of these. And I know there's one that there's another game that he likes better. But I'm going to go with my heart on this one. And I'm going

to pick a game called Soma. I don't know that either of you have ever played Soma. But S-O-M-A? S-O-M-A. Absolutely phenomenal game. Very much creepy, horror-based, underwater. Think Bioshock, almost. Lots of creepiness, lots of really neat psychological aspects to it. Soma is one of those games that if you have not heard anything about, you should, number one, definitely look it up. And it would hold up phenomenally to this day because I think they did a remaster of it or did one of those texture packs or something where the graphics actually are really good still. What's it from? What's that?

What's it from? What year did it come out? Soma's probably... If I had to guess, I would say... 2015? Yep, 2015. So it's not that that old, but man, if you want a creepy, amazingly well

done, psychological horror type game, Soma is cream of the crop as far as that goes. And like both of you it's criminally unknown because it's incredible. You solve puzzles. Paul and I are criminally unknown because it's incredible. You solve puzzles.

Paul and I are criminally unknown. Yes. I agree. Yes, you guys are. Well, these are the people who made Amnesia. I'm surprised it's not a bigger title. Dude, I don't get it. I don't know why Soma didn't catch on because just like Amnesia, it's so well done.

There's not much about this game that doesn't hold up or is not enjoyable it's just sad because it's one of those games that not a lot of people know about so for those that have played soma out there they are cheering and going yes josh yes nice and then everybody else is going what soma well let me go google that but yes if that's your kind of game i you will not be disappointed at all everybody else hit the click forward 15 seconds like four times and if paul if you don't take the other game that i was going to pick i'll let you know what it was well we can do honorable mentions at the end too okay that's yeah yeah when i heard soma the inner chef slash foodie inside me just thought of noma which is one of like the most well-known restaurants in the world in denmark and i got really excited and a little

bit less excited about soma see i've never heard of noma so we're even now see when i heard of soma i i heard of the annual music festival in northern ireland and that's only because that was the first thing came up my google Google search when I just Googled it. Very nice. Summer festival. All right. So here we are down to the last pick of the draft. I think we've got some really awesome games that I know you guys have not played, or at least I don't think you have.

Honestly, Sleeping Dogs, I might even have taken number one overall if I thought you guys had played it. Never played it. That was like a GTA competitor that honestly I thought was just as good. It took place in Hong Kong, but I feel like people, for whatever reason, maybe they just didn't want to play

like an Eastern open world sandbox game like that. But Sleeping Dogs pops up on tons of these lists. Sleeping Dogs actually is in my Steam library because I got it on a sale one time. And I was like, that looks like an Eastern GTA. I want to play that. It's exactly what it is. And it's really good. I played it back in the day, maybe on Xbox.

But yeah, that's a great one. Gun. I preferred Gun to Red Dead Revol revolver it was the better cowboy game and honestly i almost feel like rockstar took everything that gun did well and incorporated it and then churned out red dead redemption one uh but gun never got a sequel and gun is really good i think they like disbanded that part of the company and so that one pops up on a lot of lists uh shadow of the colossus another great one that we don't have a sequel to so that just leaves for me i'm playing to my audience here being you two trying to pick one that might make it as a dark horse out of round one keep talking and nobody explodes oh wait that's too new that's

no i don't think so is it are you sure there are no sequels that was on that was on my list and i got rid of it because i didn't i didn't look it up though i just assumed it was too new no it is not too new oh no buddy oh no that was actually on my list paul but it was further down but what a great game and you could do so much more with it to be honest yeah it's a great idea i was i thought you were gonna pick golden eye when you said you were gonna play to michael and myself because we know that michael loves golden eye and i love golden have a sequel no i, it does not. I was going... Okay, my two cheeky picks. I was going to... I literally have these down with question marks after the name.

I have GoldenEye question mark because they did make The World Is Not Enough and things like that, which were the Bond movie sequels, and they made games on those sequels. But there's technically no GoldenEye 2, but you do have more Bond games. So I thought it probably wouldn't count. I would have tried to axe it just because I took it off my list because I'm like, well, there's Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, and they're basically sequels. Yeah, but that's not the same game. Those are based on movies that are different movies.

So Goldeneye to me would completely qualify. That's tough. But the story does carry on with the Pierce Brosnan Bond. I don't know. What about world of warcraft if i drafted world of warcraft would you have allowed it because it is not a sequel it is a complete new series that is based on the warcraft a lot of dlc but not a sequel there is no world of warcraft 2 whereas like there was an everquest 2 yeah but it's a sequel to Warcraft, isn't it? But Warcraft is an RTS series.

This was an MMO. The story carries on and intertwines. So yes, it's not allowed. I would not consider World of Warcraft a one-hit wonder, is the only thing. Because there's so many expansions and stuff for it. I thought it was kind of in the gray area.

I would have shot that down, but I would not have shot down Gold eye all right well uh wait did i make my pick no not yet keep talking i was gonna say are we 15 minutes in he still hasn't made a pick yet no i'm just yeah keep talking and nobody explodes that that that's the official that's such a fun that's a great pick what other uh honorable mentions do you guys have oh i've got um so minecraft minecraft was on my list and i almost picked it but i i mean honestly that could be a that could have been the one dungeons that's not a sequel no that's the same that is the exact same as world of warcraft that is no different than world of warcraft and warcraft that's just because somebody used the IP

doesn't mean that it's a sequel. It's got creeper lore. I know. Minecraft, but it's one of those things. I feel like Minecraft wouldn't have won just because it didn't fit the nature of the draft. Like the tournament, you know? It's not my cup of tea anyway.

I had Podracer, Star Wars Episode I Racer. What a phenomenal racing game one of the best racing games out there in my opinion um there was no sequel to that um amnesia the dark descent apparently i was looking at these psychological horror games because i've got heavy rain amnesia and uh soma on there um and then uh josh is gonna go black out later and not know where he is for two hours. All right. So for mine, yeah, I had Minecraft as well.

But I also had Cities Skylines, ironically enough, which has been out for a while. And it's not made by Maxis. It's not a sim game. It actually one of the more well-received sim builders. It really is kind of the best one to be honest with you and it's got a lot of uh um not dlc but a lot of mods a lot of modding community stuff like that um i've also got the order 1886 which i haven't played which people had mixed reviews on that i heard was the story was yes no okay but added cool elements um and stardew valley i started

valley i thought about too but i didn't i don't like that game so i didn't know that's why i didn't advertise for it same reason i left it also off yeah i also had a couple others castle crashers uh brute force brute force i don't remember if i brought that up when we talked about hidden gems that was one of our very first bonus rounds brute force was a third person action game that came out in my mind i kind of like remember it being similar to gears of war where it was like a cover base third person shooter and that game never got a sequel and that one was great and then i don't know if it i don't know how old it was but the witness i also the witness is actually on my list as well i love love that. Great choice. Yeah.

All right. Well, it's time to go through these rounds. These are the matchups. We are already an hour into the episode, so we can keep these relatively short. But our first matchup in round one is Rust versus Soma. I can't argue against Rust. I don't think you're going to win this one. Since I brought up Soma and it's the round one, and obviously we're both going to pick Rust, I will say this.

Soma has a 96% overwhelmingly positive review score on Steam that should tell you how amazing that game is. So if you have not picked up Soma, you can pick it up dirt cheap, and I highly recommend it. But yes, I'm going with Rust. And Soma, please sponsor the show. Yes, right. We need sponsors. All right, so yeah, we'll go ahead. We'll plug in Rust.

That'll be the winner of that matchup. Second matchup, Terraria versus Bully. Ooh, tough one. I love Bully, but no. Terraria's, I think, the far better game. Terraria is such a popular game. I mean, anybody that's... I mean, Terraria was a very pleasant surprise. That is one game that we did a deep dive on that I did not think I was going to like.

And then wound up going, I see what the hype is about. I see why so many people love this game. And I think it's still in our top 15 yeah i think it is somewhere it's ranked pretty high and it hasn't really moved since then either so and true story too josh is actually not very stubborn but his beard is very stubborn and just will not get off my face i can't it's like a cling on 16 on our leaderboard but yeah great game bully I've never played I hear it does if you actually google

the whole like hey what's a game that you know bully does come up a lot I've just not played it I hear it's great but it's no terraria no I get you that's fine I'll concede on this one fair enough and then our final or or sorry, not our final, match three in round one.

We have the Stanley Parable versus Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. Oh, man. I'm going to give this to Michael, to be honest. As much as I love Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, The Stanley Parable I know is absolutely beloved. I played the demo for it, and I absolutely loved what I saw in the demo. I will wind up playing this game. It's on my wish list so that I don't forget about it. But I feel like for such a beloved game, there's not been any kind of sequel to it.

There's been games that have tried to copy that formula a little bit. Paul, the last time we did a demo show, I talked about a game that said, do not buy this game. That was basically doing the same thing as the Stanley Parable. So I'm going to pick Stanley Parable on that one. I do as well. And this was tough for me because I love

Keep Talking, Nobody Explodes. And I'm not the type of person that's going to... Well, I kind of am because I want to win this time. That's just going to pick mine for the sake of picking mine. But honestly, I think that the Stanley Parable had so many things that were so original going for it. And so does Keep Talking, Nobody Explodes, obviously. But Stanley Parable is one of a kind.

It moves on. Yeah. Just so clever. Keep Talking is also clever and fun. But the writing and the humor of Stanley Parable is just top-notch. I can't vote against it. All right, next matchup here. Oof, Michael, this is a rough one.

Grim Fandango, which none of us have played, versus Heavy Rain, which... Did I put Heavy Rain in my top ten of all time? I think you did. Or did I leave it out? I hope I had it in there, because it should have been. I don't know if it rain in my top 10 of all time i think you did or did i leave it out i hope i had it in there because it should have been i don't know if i don't think it was there i think i know it's in your top 10 but i don't know that you actually like mentioned it when we did the top 10 episode wow i think that's an oversight by me yeah bad bad job by paul new top 10 episode coming

soon guys we gotta revisit top 10 just did it last month so uh josh do you and i both throw our hat in the ring for heavy rain here easily sorry michael there are some people out there right now that have played both and i'm probably like you guys are dumb i'm not one of them though because you know i've never played either. Heavy Rain is just so good. All right. Heavy Rain survives round one. I'm so proud. All right.

Next matchup, we've got Jade Empire versus Spore. This is a sentence I never thought I would speak out loud. How on earth do you end up with Jade Empire versus Spore in a podcast? Only on this podcast, man, which is great. Now, neither of you played Jade Empire, and you both played Spore only on this podcast, which is great. Now, neither of you play Jade Empire and you both played Spore. Jade Empire, I guarantee you is the better game. I,

I, I was going to say, I have a feeling Jade Empire is the better game. I think Spore is the better idea that needs a sequel more, but we didn't say what's a game that needs a sequel. It's what's the best game with no sequel we did say that yeah yeah yeah so does that mean we're picking jade empire because it really is up there as far as a phenomenal game that just never had anything

done with it yeah i'm i'm perfectly fine with that although i will say go check out spore it's worth checking out i'm good it. Alright, last matchup of round one. Ooh, this is a fun one. Eternal Darkness versus L.A. Noir, as Michael would say. Noir. La Noir. Man, I have never

played L.A. Noir. So I can't comment to that, but I am a huge fan of Eternal Darkness. So my vote would go to eternal darkness because that game is great my vote goes to la noir oh paul or nor now you've played as much as it i i'm so yeah i'm the only one who's played both man they're both great but i mean eternal darkness honestly for me might have been my pick in round one. Like I said before, I got to go Eternal Darkness.

I think what we're trying to do is systematically remove every game that I've played so that I don't get to say a word. This draft ain't looking so good for changing Michael's losing streak. Nope, sure isn't. I'll get him next time, guys. Michael's still got one game in the mix. You never know. We'll see if Stanley Parable can carry you the rest of the way. It's a strong one.

Stanley Parable's back is hurting at this point, because that's carrying an awful load here for Michael. Alright, we are in round two. We are down to our final six games. We're looking at Rust, Terraria, Stanley parable jade empire heavy rain and eternal darkness that's

a great list actually that's a good list of games why do we not have sequels why do these not have sequels guys they're so good all right rust versus jade empire josh you're the only one who has played both that means he gets to pick i

i absolutely love Rust. Rust is in our top four of games. But here's the thing. Rust, I feel like, doesn't fit the nature of this episode and this draft. Because it's multiplayer or like why?

I just like the heart of it, man. You know what I mean? It's a great pick, but it's like, I don't know that there could be a sequel to Rust. What is that? What am I doing here, Josh? I don't know. You're grasping for straws, Josh.

I was like, what are you doing? Jade Empire was so good. Jade Empire versus Rust is the game where it's like, yes, they should have made a sequel to Jade Empire. Rust doesn't need a sequel. But I hate you for making me do this this paul because i love rust so much this is so much fun how dare you paul how dare you if we did a deep dive on jade empire it ain't cracking the top four it's not i don't you're a mean person paul i'd say i feel bad but i don't i know you don't all right right, I'm going Rust.

All right, Rust wins. Rust has the first pass here into the finals. How do you make a sequel for Rust? That's the only thing I'm having a problem with. I really want a sequel to Rust, or just fix the first game. I really just want a Rust that doesn't have the bugs and the hackers. What would the name be for Rust 2 rustier uh oxidization yeah there you go ruster rustier rusty rustier is the third the third part is rustiest yeah or just rusty it's like no hold on it's like the die hard trilogy die hard to die

harder come on yeah yes yeah come on more rust is the sequel all right next match up oh we got two good games terraria versus heavy rain oh now if i voted with my heart the answer is heavy rain if you asked me to vote as a impartial critic. Terraria is the better game. But, man, do I like Heavy Rain more. I like Heavy Rain. I miss our hearts here. I will say this. As the only person that I think has played both of these games.

Well, no, Paul, you've played both, too. See, this is a tough one. But I'm with you, Paul. This kind of goes back to my... They're so different. Yeah. But if Terraria came out with a sequel, if they announced guys, Terraria two's in development, the world would lose its mind. Honestly, it really would. And I feel like if somebody came out and said, Hey, heavy rain's got a sequel. People would go, Oh, that, that I remember that game. That game's really old, you know? So no one would care exactly so i'm gonna say terraria on

this one as much as i love heavy rain and they're both my picks so i got no horse in this race or actually i guess i have both horses in this race yeah you've got two you're shooting one of your horses well bang bang see you heavy rain uh michael you do technically get a vote uh do you have a preference um which one did josh just pick uh yeah no terraria go go for it yeah he made some good points though like terraria is also like one of those games that everybody's heard of it's a household name a household game everyone except for me in the world has played it and so it's one of those things where it's like kids haven't played it it gets to move on i think they. I think they have. I'm sure they have. And I know, and I keep saying this,

I'm 100% sure it's in my Steam library because I bought it because I had a buddy who was like, let's play Terraria. Yeah. Yeah. Great game. I still don't understand why they don't teach you how to play it.

Yeah. So you got to spend a couple hours on YouTube learning how to play Terraria. Wait, really? Once you learn it, it's great. Yeah, they don't teach you anything. They teach you nothingosh and then it's like it's so crazy because i had to keep shouting at my daughter over and over like how do we do this she'd be like oh yeah you do that like how do we do this it's goofy the second josh taught me to just build a wall up into the sky

and the fact that there was like a whole sky area to explore really blew my mind because there is nothing in the tutorial of terraria that would ever make you think that you could just like build your way up into the sky yeah wow all right and then our last matchup of round two the stanley parable versus eternal darkness stanley parable does michael make it into the final stand the parable oh no it doesn't sound good sorry michael number one my my play time with stanley parable is admittedly very low i think the demo was only like 20 minutes and as much as i have a lot of interest in playing that game so the demo is the full game, basically. I mean, maybe. Yeah, it might be, actually. But I mean, Eternal Darkness is just so good.

And I know that game will never get a sequel, but it needs a sequel. All right. I am 0-4 now, officially, before the end of the show. Well, Paul gets to decide on this one, but I'm assuming you're taking it. I do. I'm picking Eternal Darkness.

I'm sorry, Michael. So does that mean Michael's out. I'm sorry, Michael. Does that mean Michael's out? Michael's out. Guys, at this point, I'm like the Razzy Awards. Michael, do you know that guy, Owen? Owen Ford. Owen Ford!

Dang it! Michael's middle name is Owen. I was hoping to get you. I'm changing. People are going to wonder why I changed my Discord name to Owen tonight. Josh the Beard and Michael Owen. Owen. Oh, man.

Oh, boy. All right. So we are down to our final three here in the finals. Since we're a three-man show, this is just how the math works out. You always end up with three. So we've got rust versus terraria versus eternal darkness um i think all three of these games belong here i don't think there's an obvious dark or black sheep where it's like yeah cross that one out i think these all deserve to be here they do i can tell you that i think one is gonna wind up dropping out yeah Which one would you think that is, Paul? Terraria.

No! I'm guessing you're going to say something else. Okay, so what we generally do here is we just match up all three and see which one wins the most rounds. So let's just start out by saying Terraria versus eternal darkness i would go terraria i would also go eternal darkness you know i absolutely love that game paul but number one we know that there will never be a sequel and the problem is it is sad it makes me sad because people need to run with that formula and that idea of actually tricking the gamer. I don't think that's been done nearly enough. But I don't think that...

If you played that game today, number one, I don't think it would age very well. And I think you can't deny the insane popularity that is Terraria. And the fact that for a game that is so wildly, wildly popular, there's no sequel for it. And I think it's the better pick. Yeah, I feel like if we crossed out Terraria, 75% of our listeners that are still hanging on would turn this off. So my personal vote, I honestly really do think Eternal Darkness is a better game, but I totally get it, and I'm fine with it. So Terraria, I'm not voting for it, but you both did, so that's fine. It wins that matchup.

What about Rust versus Eternal Darkness? I mean, I have to say Rust. I gotta say Rust. Rust is just so good. It is. And we gotta make Michael play Rust at some point, man. I have to say rust. Rust is just, I just, it's so good. It is. And we got to make Michael play rust at some point, man.

We really do. Yeah. Maybe we, I mean, people, it's our show, man. We can do what we want on this podcast. And people would be like,

why are you doing a third deep dive on rust? And it's like, well, because Michael to play it. Cause yeah, because we want Michael to have the greatest time of his life and then be super depressed. I want Michael texting me like late at night being like, dude, I can't believe we lost everything.

Wait, did we really lose everything? And I'm like, yeah, it's all gone, dude. Can we reload? And I'm like, no, it's all just gone. After 30 hours? Yep, gone. Gone, Michael. This game sucks. I hate this game. That's about right. I do like survival games, but I do not like that element of it. But that being said, I will prepare myself. I will come at it with a strong heart. Risk-reward, though, man. Nothing gets your heart pumping like the thought of losing everything

or the thought that you're about to steal all of somebody else's stuff, too. That's what I'm most excited about. So question question though, uh, not to make this hour, seven hour long episode any longer. Um, if you,

if everything's taken from you, can you still go take things from other people? Oh yeah. Sure. If you kill them. Yeah. And you can kill people with a bow and arrow. It's not,

you can hit them with a rock. Technically that's hard to kill somebody with, but yeah, it is. Yeah. Um, yeah. So we, technically. That's hard to kill somebody with. It is. Yeah. Yeah. So getting to this, this is tough, man, because Rust I absolutely love, and it's an amazing game. I'm having a hard time saying that Rust is a one-hit wonder and that I just don't know how you make a sequel to rust unless you just fix all the bugs and say hey we're re-releasing this with more organized inventory like an auto sort you know what i

mean like how do you make another terraria like terraria is the same because you can do all new bosses it's a sandbox area you can do all new bosses you can do all new biomes you i mean i guess you could do that with rust but there's no bosses in Rust either. Well, yeah, and they have added all of the new monuments, and they have added more PvE content. You could still add more stuff, I think, in Rust, no problem. But yeah, my vote is still Rust. It's perfectly eligible. I agree. And honestly, we just decided that Eternal Requiem would lose to Terraria.

So if we say that Rust is going to lose to that, then we know who the winner is. That's right. Right. All right. So it's the final matchup that we've all been waiting for. These were the first two picks. Michael, you can take some solace knowing that you just didn't have a chance to draft either of these two games.

We've got Rust versus terraria in the finals josh and i have played both games michael has played neither so this is going to be tough to decide what are we gonna crown as the winner i think terraria would make the better sequel honestly as much as i like rust i don't think you can do as much with Rust as you could do with Terraria. But that's not the draft. I'm making arguments here. And that's my argument. I don't think Rust fits the heart of this episode. If I text Josh,

Dude, I just downloaded Terraria. Let's hop in. He's not going to play it. Josh is going to say kick rocks. I'm not downloading Terraria. If I told Josh, me, Michael, and Todd are all in Rust, and we just got a 2x2 stone base up, Josh is downloading that so freaking fast. It would be long game within seven minutes, man.

Yes. Come on. It's got to be Rust. But we're not talking about which game is the most fun. That's not the— Yes, we are. It's the best standalone game. Which game meets the definition of a one-hit wonder? I think it's interesting, the argument, though, because this is not my official pick. But I'm really buying into what Josh is saying.

In fact, it's one of those things where it's ongoing. It's a multiplayer game. How do you make a sequel to that? And I know that's not the actual rules of the draft, but I almost feel like Terraria and Rust kind of both need to be thrown out. And we need to go to Eternal Darkness. We can't do that now. Sorry. Because that's a game that has a story.

Terraria and Rust don't have stories. You know what I mean? It almost feels like these are both imposters to me. So I really don't know what to go with. You can play Terraria solo. You don't have to play online. You don't have to play cooperatively. Rust, you have to play online.

There is no solo mode whatsoever. So just to be sure, I am the am the choice you're the time you're the deciding vote i have one last argument which one's higher on our leaderboard this is already solved it's already solved it's not it's the better game it is the better nature of the the draft paul and the tournament is the what game is the best one-hit wonder yes which is the better one-hit wonder game which is rust people are gonna be so mad at me i know people love both of these games so i don't think you can you know they're both among the most popular of all time okay cool i'm making my choice as the one that i actually want to play which is rust yeah fair enough i mean i

can't be upset that russ josh knows it's the winner right out of here i just i just don't like i'm like terraria i just i don't want to play that i know it's gonna be fun okay i just don't want to i'm excited and i want to play rust and i want to do it paul i want you to snip this audio for me where michael says i want to play rust we're gonna make michael play rust and then i want to play this audio back for him later on and then he'll be like i didn't know guys i didn't know sorry i guarantee you michael will say i'm never playing this game again because every rust player has said that 40 times and it doesn't matter you run back to it i don't know why oh it's it's the perfect

picture of addiction i've always said that this this i do i do though nuts man it was nuts but to josh's point though i i do feel like it's kind of an imposter even though it won because i feel like to have a sequel you need a story and a fun but maybe that's just the way i play games no no it's like overwatch terraria was the right answer as far as the topic of this draft goes, but Rust, just Rust 1 anyway. And I can't argue with that because Rust is great. It's a standalone game. Like, I don't know.

I think what are all the standalone games? Which one's the most fun? What do I want to play the most? What would I love to see another sequel of? And for me, Rust checks every box. Dude, if they make a sequel to Rust, all I want is inventory management. I don't want to spend an hour cleaning up after you slobs putting stuff in the right boxes. Auto sort. Give us an auto sort. It can't be that hard. Yes. All right.

Well, that is going to wrap up this bonus round tournament. I can't believe I won. I feel like I lost a whole bunch in a row. So Michael, your streak is going to come up this bonus round tournament. I can't believe I won. I feel like I lost a whole bunch in a row. So, Michael, your streak is going to come. Because I think I've won two out of the last three now. Your day in the sun will come. One day you will understand what this feels like. I feel like I've lost a lot in a row. Maybe we should let Michael pick the topic for the next tournament.

I think I picked two of the topics. That's the worst part. I think you did. Throw that out the window. No, I picked RPG and Space Games. I don't know who picked the beer one. Michael is just going to pick best

story reveal in Myst. There you go. That's it. Best puzzle in Myst tournament, guys. There you go. All right. be, there we go. That's it. That's puzzle and mist tournament guys. That yeah, there you go. All right. Well,

thank you so much to everybody for listening. Once again, if you like what we do here and you want to help support the show, head over to multiplayer squad.com. That links to our Patreon page and you can support at different tiers. They all have different perks, but the lowest one is five bucks a month and you do get bonus episodes and it does help fund what we do here. So anyway, I think that's all that we got.

Our next deep dive, which will be a week from today, is going to be on Weird West. And as always, we will have our next episode on Thursday for This Week in Gaming. So thanks again, everyone, for listening. Happy gaming all. We'll see you next time. Cheers, all. See you, everybody. Let's go play Rust.